The book 'Tracing Submergence' is captured in a sequence of photographs. Moments of construction revealing the geological layers are reconfigured into photographic traces. The collaborative project aims to reimagine and reconfigure moments in time, keeping language fluid whilst maintaining its material presence. The sedimentary layers of ink fold the traces of dialogue held in and with water. Venetian marbling, writing, drawing and calligraphy all emerge and recede throughout the book. As its pages open and close, connections and insights become memories, much as ripples on the surface of water.

We pursued a geological exploration of submergence, tracing the strata of a chthonic writing. Submergence refers to the planet, as it dips into flooding and risen water levels, but also to the human existence after the anthropocene, and how it is absorbed by the geological.

Part I – withdrawing
We withdraw from the manic centre of the Anthropocene, where the human is everywhere. We allow agency to emerge without trying to assign it. We stand by and observe nonhuman agency blossoming. We remain silent. We withdraw: neither is leading, the dance is organic, I see you moving and I move along, replicating each other’s copying mistakes of route, a writing that moves like atonement: no representation, just movement.

Part II – stitching
We honour differences. We might all be part of a human/nonhuman continuum, but we are all distinct. We understand the need to provide support: we have a historical responsibility to make amends. We are the main perpetrators. We stitch: we enable the structure to emerge and merge. We align without imposing a way. As subtly as we can, we visibilise difference.

Part III – gilding
We dig deep, we find gold. We glide and gild, we fly low above the surface, releasing moments of reflection. We observe the inequality. We fear for the depletion of mineral resources and we hope for the mineralisation of thought. We aim for a planetary jurisprudence of mineral circularity. We gild: we bury the economical, make light of 24 karats. We die frivolously, we give birth to a geology of justice.